Friday, May 31, 2013

A number of fast-food and retail workers say their jobs improved after they walked out on their employer in a wave of one-day strikes over the past few months.

Fast-food workers in Seattle walked out of dozens of restaurants on Wednesday night and Thursday, marking the seventh one-day strike in the past eight weeks. Low-wage workers have gone on strike in New York, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee.

Now the workers say they are seeing some improvement in their jobs after returning. The Huffington Post reports:

Conditions, hours, positions and pay have improved for a number of workers who participated in strikes in the last two months, organizers say. They point to Krystal Collins in Chicago, who got a 0.25 cent hourly raise and was switched from part-time to full-time after walking off her job at Macy's in April, and to Claudette Wilson, Romell Frazier and Khalil Dorris in Detroit, who forced their Burger King to close for the day in early May and subsequently saw their hours increase.

Eddie Guzman needed to work at least 20 hours a week to be eligible for welfare programs, such as food stamps and affordable housing. But his requests for more hours at the Brooklyn Burger King were met with deaf ears. Guzman's managers kept his working hours between 12 and 15 a week.

After the strike he was fired, but then:

...community organizers and New York city council member Brad Lander went to the Burger King (BKW) to ask for his job back...

Within days, Guzman had his job back and was scheduled to work at least 20 hours per week.

Robert Wilson a Chicago McDonald's employee, before the strike:

(He) spent eight years showing new employees the ropes and training others to get better positions at McDonald's. But he was never able to move up the ranks himself.

That was until he and other workers rallied on Black Friday outside of the location where he worked in Chicago's Navy Pier.

His managers saw Wilson protesting. The very next day, they told him that the position he had been gunning for was finally open.

Savannah port drivers are fighting back against the trucking companies that exploit them at a community forum tomorrow morning.

The Port of Savannah is the fourth largest and fastest growing container port in the U.S. That means steady work for port drivers. But it doesn't mean work that can support a middle-class family.

Savannah's professional port drivers are treated like sharecroppers on wheels. They are shackled by classification as independent contractors and stripped of all the rights of an employee.

Wages are low, operating costs are high, and the hours are dangerously long.

The drivers aren't paid enough to safely maintain the trucks or to upgrade them to the clean-burning rigs that environmentalists and public health advocates are demanding at the Port of Los Angeles Long Beach, Seattle and Newark.

Our Teamster brothers and sisters at Local 728 in Atlanta are hosting a forum tomorrow for the drivers to tell the community about their dangerous, low-wage jobs.

WTOC-TV reporter Bob Logana will moderate the panel, which includes an impressive line-up of elected officials, labor leaders and clergy. Attending the forum will be:

The Honorable Carolyn Bell, alderman, Savannah City Council

Larry Benjamin, assistant district director, U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division

The Honorable Bob Bryant, state representative, Georgia House of Representatives

Please give a warm welcome to our 12 new brothers and sisters who voted unanimously on Wednesday to become members of Teamsters Local 727. They are dispatchers and call takers at paratransit company First Transit, Inc., in Glenview.

Earlier this year, nearly 30 dispatchers, schedulers and reservationists at MV Transportation in nearby Niles also voted to join Local 727.

John Coli, Jr., Local 727 president, vowed to fight for the new members at the bargaining table. Union representatives soon will begin negotiating with First Transit management on a first contract.

Teamsters Local 727 represents more than 6,800 hardworking men and women throughout the Chicago area.

A California program that's supposed to create jobs is killing good Teamster jobs and making corporate bosses richer.

While the Golden State's enterprise zone program does shift jobs to 40 areas it deems economically depressed, employers are the big winners. In many cases, jobs are moving from one California locality to another, sending existing workers to the unemployment line. Meanwhile companies are piling up more profits due to the tens of thousands in tax breaks they get for each employee they hire at the new job site.

The Frying Pan News explains the state-sponsored sham. Established in 1984, the program gives companies tax credits of up to $37,440 per person hired in one of the zones. Yet there is evidence that many areas eligible for the programs shouldn't be, noting that well-heeled neighborhoods in Los Angeles and San Francisco qualify as enterprise zones.

While some workers might be willing to move to continue their employment, they don't get the choice. Under the rules of the program, employers cannot take current workers if they want to receive tax credits. That leaves a lot of people who once earned middle-class wages out of luck. Bay Area warehouse workers John Thomas and Hans Burkhardt, both Teamsters, are just two examples.

The union jobs that Burkhardt and Thomas and their fellow workers had at the BlueLinx and VWR locations paid, on average, about $20 an hour, plus benefits. They were replaced with non-union positions that paid about one-half of that, with non-existent or substantially reduced benefits.

We detailed the plight of many of their fellow workers earlier this year. The loss of union wage jobs by members of Teamsters Local 853 resulted in the companies paying their new non-union employees about $10 an hour with no benefits in their new locations.

Doug Bloch, Teamsters political director for the Central Valley and Northern California, told Frying Pan News the VWR and BlueLinx situation encapsulates all that is wrong with the enterprise zone program.

Our union is all for programs that create jobs in economically distressed areas. This program doesn’t create jobs.

Some elected officials are beginning to see the light. State Sen. Jerry Hill has unveiled legislation soon to be considered on the Senate floor that would revamp the program by saying it must create net new jobs that pay at least $16 an hour. And Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this month proposed that the zones be replaced by a sales tax credit for firms that buy manufacturing or biotech equipment.

Californians need to make sure the rest of the state's lawmakers get on board as well. Tell your elected members to support Sen. Hill's SB 434 and help create new jobs, not just move old ones.

ALEC is promoting an economic report so foolish that it claims job-killer Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is succeeding in creating jobs.

Since Walker took office in 2010, armed with ALEC's agenda, job-creation has plummeted in Wisconsin. The state's average wage fell 2 percent. It ranks 44th in job creation. And it has trailed the nation in job creation for 26 consecutive months, exactly the amount of time Walker has spent in office.

But ALEC ranks Wisconsin 15th for its economic outlook. ALEC, of course, is an escort service for corporations and state lawmakers. It doesn't want to create jobs, it wants to enrich CEOs and billionaires. Part of its strategy is to distort reality in ways that the mainstream media will repeat.

He also passed an austerity budget that Federal Reserve economists predicted would slow the state's job creation. And even the rabidly pro-corporate Chamber of Commerce says Walker's doing a crappy job. Writes CMD:

A recent Chamber of Commerce report placed Wisconsin 44th in the country for overall economic performance, and for short-term job growth between September 2010 and November 2012 it ranked Wisconsin 50th out of 50. The Chamber report didn't place long-term job growth much better either, ranking Wisconsin at 45th out of 50. The report ranked Wisconsin 39th for its "business climate."

Thursday, May 30, 2013

(UPDATES to CORRECT title to misclassification, sted misidentification)

The New Jersey Senate did its job this afternoon sticking up for companies that properly pay port and parcel delivery truck drivers. Now it's up to Gov. Chris Christie to show corporations and workers that he won't provide cover for those who duck taxes and employee benefit obligations by mislabeling their drivers as contractors.

By a 21-to-17 vote, the state Senate backed S-1450, siding with Teamsters and other pro-labor groups by approving strict
penalties for companies that attempt to cheat the system and drivers. The bill makes it more difficult for trucking companies involved in short-distance
hauling -- known as drayage trucking -- or package delivery (i.e., FedEx Ground) to improperly classify their drivers as contract workers. The Assembly passed its own version of the same legislation last week.

... trucking services performed in the drayage trucking industry or parcel delivery industry by an individual for remuneration are deemed to be employment unless and until it is shown to the satisfaction of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development that:

1. The individual has been and will continue to be free from control or direction over the performance of that service, both under his contract of service and in fact;

2. The service is either outside the usual course of the business for which the service is performed, or the service is performed outside of all the places of business of the employer for which the service is performed; and

3. The individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business.

The Teamsters have long advocated for an end of the practice known as misclassification across the country, noting that it not only hurts its membership but taxpayers as well. It allows companies to shirk their responsibilities by sparing them from paying Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance, as well as overtime and benefits.

The legislation now heads to Gov. Christie, who has not been kind to labor during his term in office. In an April town meeting, for example, he said "unions are the problem." The governor seems more interested in photo ops with President Obama than in securing fair wages for the state's workers. Don't let that continue. Contact Gov. Christie and tell him that cracking down on unscrupulous companies that cheat their workers is the right thing to do.

Wal-Mart freedom riders are setting out from union halls, churches and outdoor rallies to demand respect from the company at its headquarters in Arkansas.

As they set out on their cross-country journey they were blessed by a bishop, hailed by a mayor, cheered in union halls.

They call the bus trips the "Ride for Respect." It's part of the biggest and longest strike by Wal-Mart workers who are fed up with poverty wages and intimidation. At least 100 Wal-Mart workers walked off the job in Massachusetts, Miami and California on Tuesday, and more are expected to join. They are riding on buses through the South, much as the freedom riders did in 1961. They will stop in 30 cities on the way to their protest at Wal-Mart's shareholders meeting in Bentonville, Ark., on June 7.

They'll be greeted by supporters in the towns and cities where they stop. Events are being planned in more than 40 Wal-Mart stores, union halls and churches throughout the country.

Earlier this week, two Wal-Mart workers in Massachusetts held a news conference before driving to Washington, where they'd board the bus to Bentonville. Aubretia told the press that employees were tired of depending on government subsidies for health care, food, heat and electricity because of Wal-Mart's low wages.

What we want to do is stand up and live better. we are the employees of Wal-Mart except they keep pushing us down and pushing us down.

Labor and community groups gathered in support in D.C. at Florida Ave. Baptist Church for a pep rally and breakfast to send off Maryland and Massachusetts Walmart associates who are also members of the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart). After an opening prayer by Reverend Dr. Edwin Jones from Living Faith Baptist Church, the all women social justice a cappella group, Song Rise, gave an inspirational performance by serenading the attendees with “aint gonna let no Walmart, turn me around” and “aint gonna let injustice, turn me around.”

In El Monte, Calif., Mayor Andre Quintero spoke about respect to a gathering of striking Wal-Mart workers and their supporters. In Pico Rivera, Calif., clergy joined a picket line in front of a store and Bishop Mendez blessed the bus. In Irvine, Calif., janitors and Wal-Mart strikers represented with a large drum and signs demanding respect outside of a store.

In Atlanta, Wal-Mart strikers kicked off their Ride for Respect with a community breakfast at IBEW Local 613's hall. They got a sendoff from the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center, as community leaders joined them to protest the company's refusal to change.

And in Seattle, a dozen strikers posed for a photo in front of their bus before heading south.

Rallies to support the Wal-Mart strikers are being held all across the country. To find one near you, click here. To donate to the strike fund, click here. To follow them on twitter, use the #WalmartStrikers hashtag.

An attempted scam on workers' paychecks was defeated in the New Hampshire earlier this week, a victory in the fight against ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council).

ALEC, the escort service for corporations and state lawmakers, was pushing a bill to let New Hampshire businesses get rid of paper paychecks. Instead, workers would be paid with a debit-style "payroll card," which carries hidden fees for withdrawals, payments and balance inquiries.

The Democratic-led House voted, 235-93, to kill the bill, which passed the Republican-led Senate, 20-4, on March 21.

“This bill is pretty offensive,” said Rep. Tim Smith, a Manchester Democrat. “This is one of the newer scams that’s been pushed on our hardworking citizens, and it’s taken the form of a payroll card.”

State law requires businesses to offer employees the option of being paid with a physical paycheck. The bill would have eliminated that requirement for businesses that offer their workers both direct deposit and a preloaded card, such as versions offered by Visa and MasterCard.

Our friends at Granite State Progress outed ALEC and the corporate backers of the bill (you know it didn't come from workers):

Corporations like Visa have been eager to transition workers to payroll cards to collect more fees from the transactions, including transaction fees charged at local businesses who accept the cards for payment. At an ALEC Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force meeting in 2011, a lobbyist from Visa brought forward a resolution in support of payroll cards. Rep. Gary Daniels, a long-time ALEC member and current ALEC State Co-Chair, is a member of that ALEC task force. Daniels wrote the minority blurb in support of SB 100 and spoke in its favor on the House floor.

Last year, the Teamsters struggled to organize 65 drivers who work for Australia-based Toll Holdings at the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach. The company was paying the drivers poverty-level wages while the top executive took home $2.5 million.

Jose Ortega, for example, is a 36-year-old single father who earned $23,773 from Toll in 2011 -- just above the poverty line.

The Teamsters' contract propelled the Toll drivers into the middle class. It just goes to show that a union contract is the best anti-poverty program there is.

Consider this: A typical non-unionized port driver earns about $9.41 an hour. The Toll drivers now earn about $19 an hour, plus overtime.

Before the Toll contract, only eleven drivers were active in the company’s 401(k) plan. With the contract, Toll drivers will have a Teamsters retirement account through the Teamsters Western Conference Pension Trust.

Non-union port drivers face a hurdle that the Toll drivers didn't have to jump: they're misclassified as "independent contractors." This absolves the employer of responsibility toward them and the trucks and consigns them to poverty. The typical independent port driver encounters:

No W-2 employment and benefits

No workers’ compensation protection.

No disability insurance.

No Social Security.

No workplace health and safety protections.

No right to form a union.

Work an average of 59 hours per week with no overtime pay.

Constant retaliation and abuse.

No lunch or rest breaks.

Dangerous work conditions.

Chronic wage theft.

Fees for parking and truck wash.

Fees for liability insurance.

Fees for truck rental and fuel.

Maintenance and vehicle registration fees.

Here's how the Toll drivers are treated now:

They got an instant hourly gain of $6.28 for the day shift and $6.53 for the night shift.

Every driver is enrolled in the Teamster pension plan.

They get overtime after 40 hours worked at a time-and-a-half rate of $28.

They got an $800 bonus for signing the contract.

They have full family vision, dental and medical coverage, 95 percent of which is paid for by the employee.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Protesters rallied against the Benedict Arnold Koch brothers in 14 cities today, mostly to oppose their rumored purchase of 10 major newspapers but also to demand they clean up their mountain of petroleum coke next to the Detroit River.

Nearly half a million people signed petitions opposing the brothers' takeover of the Tribune newspaper chain, which includes the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the Hartford Courant and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The protests are backed by a coalition of union, good-government and environmental groups.

They gathered in midtown Manhattan in front of the offices of an investment firm that owns 9.4 percent of the chain. Filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal spoke; they directed of the 2013 documentary about the Wisconsin uprising called "Citizen Koch." The film was intended for PBS, but lost its funding over fears it would anger the David Koch.

In Detroit, protesters wore masks and held signs demanding they remove the huge uncovered pile of petroleum coke blowing into the Detroit River. Good Jobs Now has photos on its Facebook page, with the message:

The Koch Brothers are busy trying to buy up many of the nation's newspapers, but they should be more concerned with cleaning up their mess! The are the owners of many 3 story high mounds of petroluem coke, which is blowing into the Detroit River.

In Philadelphia, a community organizing group sent an email:

The Koch brothers’ political agenda includes de-funding education, privatizing Social Security, overturning the new healthcare law, eliminating the minimum wage, attacking evidence of global warming, and destroying unions. Now, they are trying to purchase media properties in the hope of influencing public opinion.

Protests were also held in Fort Lauderdale, Hartford, Baltimore, St. Louis, Harrisburg, Washington, D.C., Houston, Boston and Denver.

Rick Nolan worked his way through college as a UPS Teamster and now, for the second time, represents Minnesota's 8th Congressional District. He served for three terms in the '70s, went back to farming, and returned to Washington in January after an absence of 32 years.

He's shocked by the changes since then. He finds that members of Congress don't know each other, don't pass legislation that matters and spend four hours a day raising money. Nolan finds the obsession with raising money "distasteful."

Almost immediately after new members got into office, Nolan says, the DCCC began coaching them on fund-raising. A schedule from that session showed that they should spend four hours each day asking for money – more time than any other activity and more than twice the amount of time they should be spending debating issues on the House floor or hammering out legislation in committees.

Nolan says he understood the impulse — the candidate with the most amount of money typically wins — but he was taken aback. He says he’s been reprimanded by Democratic leadership for not raising enough money. He says he has not set foot in a call center that the DCCC set up near Congress, where cubicles are lined up so that congressmen can come in and dial their donors without using congressional resources.

“It helps dictate the ultimate decisions around here. We have a saying out in the country, ‘Who pays the fiddler gets to pick the tune,’ ” Nolan says. “Not only does it take away time from governance, but it has an equally adverse tendency to corrupt and pervert the public policy process.”

Tomorrow, New Jersey state senators will vote on a bill to crack down on employers who illegally misclassify drivers in the motor trucking industry. That includes employers FedEx Ground.

These bad actors call their workers independent contractors despite treating them
as employees. The workers are denied basic workplace rights,
like protections under OSHA and the Federal Labor Relations Act. They're forced to
pay out-of-pocket for all of the costs of their jobs, like uniforms and
equipment.
These drivers even have to ask employers for vacation time, despite being called independent.

Now, we need help from New Jersey Teamsters more than ever. Please send an email asking your state senator to vote yes on S-1450.
FedEx is lobbying hard against the bill:

FedEx has also come out swinging against the measure, which specifically includes drayage truck operators and package delivery drivers. Drayage trucking involves the short-distance transportation of goods.

These bad-acting employers get the best of both worlds;
control of abused workers while saving millions of dollars in workers compensation and unemployment benefits. And when these employers are allowed to
cheat they put law abiding companies at a competitive disadvantage and bring
down standards for all workers.

Join thousands of other Teamsters today and tell your Senator to
support S-1450. Just click here and send an email to support S-1450: The Truck Operator Independent Contractor Act. The email says, in part:

...the legislation ... would crack down on employers who intentionally
misclassify drivers and cost the state millions of dollars every year. This
practice, which the state has deemed a “serious injustice” to workers, costs
the state millions annually in unpaid income and unemployment taxes as well as
unpaid workers compensation premiums. Meanwhile, these misclassified drivers
are left unprotected by some of the most basic work place rights, like OSHA and
even the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Women’s Committee of Joint Council 25 raised almost $10,000 for the American Cancer Society’s breast cancer research and support fund at the Inaugural Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk in Park Ridge, Ill., earlier this month.

Our sisters recruited nearly 200 participants, making them the top fundraising team at the walk.

The marchers decked themselves out in pink feather boas, flashy hats and snazzy sunglasses as they were encouraged by children and cheerleaders.

Although this was the first American Cancer Society walk held in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, the 3.1 mile trek raised more than $70,000 – exceeding fundraising goals by more than $20,000.

The National Cancer Institute estimates more than 234,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed this year. So it's not surprising that many participating Teamsters had a personal connection to the disease. For many participants, Teamster support in this year’s march demonstrates how important the issue continues to be.

Leo Watkins from Local 700 said the march is a great way to make a difference in people's lives.

This march is a way of telling people that have this sort of illness that people support them, and to give them hope.

Carrie Sapienza, a machinery operator from Local 727, said the march was a way for the Joint Council and the Women's Committee to say that women are important too.

It's about unity, it's about solidarity. We've all got the same goal that everyone else has. We're not going away. If we show up to one of these things, it shows that we aren't going anywhere.

In previous years, local Teamsters participated in the Y-ME National Breast Cancer ­Organization walk in downtown Chicago, but changed organizations after that walk was cancelled earlier this year. After their rousing success, the Women’s Committee is already planning bigger and better participation in next year’s efforts.

...how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, she worked as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing-home aide, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. She lived in trailer parks and crumbling residential motels. Very quickly, she discovered that no job is truly "unskilled," that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and muscular effort. She also learned that one job is not enough; you need at least two if you int to live indoors.

manufacture this tells us Norton's proprietor (and actress) Deborah Leydig says her inspiration for launching Norton's U.S.A. came after after portraying Barbara Ehrenreich in a stage adaptation of the book..

Leydig began to research made in U.S.A. products and was upset to "learn how many jobs had been shipped overseas."

She explains that Norton's U.S.A. was born from a mission "to keep America working."

The Benedict Arnold Koch brothers spent a lot of money propping up Job-killer Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during his recall election last year. Now the governor is returning the favor.

Walker wants to use the state's limited budget dollars to invest in the state's sand industry. Why? Because Wisconsin's sand is a key component in the natural gas extraction process known as fracking. And guess what two ultra-rich brothers are sinking some of their sizeable wealth in fracking? Yeah, you know.

Wisconsin, along with neighboring Minnesota, has some of the best frac sand in the continent, and Koch Industries is heavily invested in natural gas extraction using a technique known as hydraulic fracturing.

The type of silica sand found in Wisconsin is mixed with water and chemicals, then injected at high-pressure into bedrock to help bring natural gas deposits to the surface.

This proposed legislative gift is just the latest example of how the Kochs are using their dollars to help bend the state to their own purposes. Besides funding the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), politicians and a number of state stink tanks, they are rumored to be suitors for the Tribune Company, which includes the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun.

The Kochs claim to be "libertarians," while they are really corporate predators. As Middle Class Political Economist points out recently, they've accepted at least $73.1 million in government handouts over the last six years:

Subsidiary Georgia Pacific has received 72 subsidies worth over $43.9 million (none of these were sales tax breaks).

Subsidiary Flint Hills Resources LP has received subsidies from Iowa, Kansas, Texas, and Michigan, according to the Good Jobs First Subsidy Tracker; the New York Timessubsidy database, which omits Michigan but includes one more Iowa subsidy, puts the value of the Iowa and Kansas subsidies alone at just over $12.5 million (again, none of which were sales tax breaks).

Subsidiary INVISTA has received $217,504 in training grants from South Carolina, according to Subsidy Tracker. Several other subsidies appear to be connected to this subsidiary, but none have available subsidy amounts. Again, none were sales tax breaks.

Meanwhile, Gov. Walker has other reasons for crafting a budget that provides help to the sand industry. This includes freight rail line upgrades and new positions at the Department of Natural Resources to oversee development of new sand mines. Gov. Walker has received the most gas and sand money of any state politician, accepting $520,266, according to the Democracy Campaign report.

Wisconsin, it's time to put your foot down and tell Gov. Walker to stop playing in the Koch brothers' sandbox. Contact your state lawmakers and tell them to oppose expansion of the Department of Natural Resources to benefit sand companies.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Today at least 100 Wal-Mart workers began a prolonged strike in three states, an action that follows one-day strikes in October and on Black Friday.

They will emulate the 1961 Civil Rights freedom riders and board buses to the retailer's headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. The buses will stop dozens of cities to pick up supporters on the way to protest Wal-Mart's annual shareholder meeting.

@MsFlowersTweets tells us one bus carrying freedom riders has left from Miami.

Strikers walked off the job in Massachusetts and the California Bay Area. Buses are also expected to leave from Washington, D.C., Chicago, Seattle and Southern California. At least 30 direct actions are planned to show support for the latter-day freedom riders. (Click here to find one or organize one yourself.)

The union-backed labor group OUR Walmart says that at least a hundred workers have pledged to join the strikes, and that some workers walking off the job today will stay out at least through June 7, when Walmart holds its annual shareholder meeting near Bentonville, Arkansas.

Organizers expect retail employees in more cities to join the work stoppage, which follows the country’s first-ever coordinated Walmart store strikes last October, and a high-profile Black Friday walkout November 23. Like Black Friday’s, today’s strike is being framed by the union-backed labor group OUR Walmart as a response to retaliation against worker-activists...

That “Ride for Respect” will bring workers to about thirty cities, including Los Angeles, D.C., Chicago, and Cincinnati, where they’ll meet supporters and visit Walmart stores before continuing to Arkansas. Schlademan called the caravans “a massive education program meant to educate Walmart workers and communities about the issues of Walmart.”

“This is the first time in my life I’m standing up for something I know is right,” says Barbara Getz, who is 45 years old and makes $10 an hour as an overnight stocker in Store No. 5334 in Aurora, Colo. “Walmart is the biggest retailer in the world, and we want them to set a high standard.” Among the group’s requests: full-time work for those who want it, with a minimum yearly salary of $25,000.

Dominic Ware will be on a bus, too. He’s a 26-year-old part-time employee at Store No. 5434 in San Leandro, Calif. He makes $8.65 an hour. “My plan is to make a lot of noise and be direct and be respectful,” he says.

Workers have also walked out on Wal-Mart suppliers. In July, eight immigrant guest workers walked out on a Louisiana seafood supplier that had basically enslaved them. In September, workers at warehouses subcontracted by Wal-Mart struck for several weeks in Southern California and in Greater Chicago.

Our favorite anti-union attorney
followed a Teamster to the
state Capitol.

California companies like the Marquez Brothers have a nasty way of challenging immigrant workers' legal status if they complain about being exploited. Those companies would pay stiff fines for doing so under two pieces of state legislation that have a chance of becoming law.

Penalties would be increased for companies that retaliate against employees who question their pay or working conditions under AB 263, offered by Assemblyman Roger Hernandez (D-West Covina), and SB 666, sponsored by Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). Hernandez's bill would hike fines against employers who retaliate against workers to $10,000 per worker and make retaliation a misdemeanor punishable by jail time. Steinberg's measure would subject attorneys to discipline or disbarment for retaliation.

Both bills passed through committee and are headed for votes on the full floor of the Assembly and the Senate.
Teamsters Local 517 organized Hanford-based Marquez Brothers last year and are still fighting for a first contract. The cheese factory owners are waging a vicious anti-union campaign. It went so far as to brazenly harass its workers in a government hearing in March. Two high-priced union-buster attorneys followed a Marquez Brothers employee -- a Teamster -- into an Assembly hearing room in
Sacramento when she was set to testify about the company's actions.Sister Candida Vanegas, who worked at the plant for
three and a half years, was fired for attending Hernandez’s hearing and
supporting unionization.She told radio station KQED:

Everybody’s scared now. They’re saying, if it happened to her who was trying to help out people, what’s going to happen to us.

Chester Suniga, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 517, said the union is
asking for a minimum wage at the Hanford plant of $12 an hour. According to
Suniga, the two sides have not reached an agreement on a contract after months
of negotiations because of the company’s stalling tactics.

We urge all supporters of workers' rights in California to contact their state lawmakers and tell them to vote for AB 263 and SB 666. Whistleblowers shouldn't be punished for turning in cheating corporations.

Just days after filing for a US Airways mechanics election, the Teamsters today announced at a Washington news conference that we're filing for an American Airlines mechanics election with the National Mediation Board.

Bill Wheeler, a 26-year American Airlines mechanic, explained why they want to be Teamsters:

Workers around the country have been under attack for years and we as American Airlines mechanics are no exception. After enduring 20 years of concessions, outsourced jobs, bankruptcy, frozen pensions and an overall lack of respect, we are coming together to bring in the bargaining power of the Teamsters Union, which has the strongest record representing mechanics in our industry.

Jim Witt, a 24-year American Airlines mechanic, added:

From day one, this campaign has been about our craft standing up and fighting back against the rampant outsourcing and other abuses we’ve seen over the years. We’ve had enough and today with the Teamsters we are drawing a line in the sand. The Teamsters have the experience and power to stand up to management and restore the dignity of our profession.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters told the Tulsa World it has collected signatures from more than half of American Airlines' mechanics and related workers...American Airlines employs nearly 11,000 maintenance workers, nearly half of them at the Tulsa Maintenance & Engineering Center at Tulsa International Airport.

If the National Mediation Board deems the signatures valid, there would be a vote on union representation among American Airlines maintenance workers.

"I wouldn't say the Teamsters don't win every battle, but they do things differently," said Hank Rogish, an American Airlines aircraft maintenance technician in Fort Worth who has been helping organize the Teamsters effort. "They won't just let their membership be decimated the way it has been here."

American Airlines has been in bankruptcy since 2011, resulting in the downsizing of aircraft maintenance stations and furloughs targeting AA mechanics. Meanwhile, a bankruptcy judge recently approved AA’s merger deal with US Airway, which will create the world’s largest airline.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Back by popular demand, here are comments by union members and their families, taken from the Teamsters Facebook page:

Jay Marvin

Thank God for my union AFTRA. WORKERS OF THE WORLD !

John Stier

always union does it better

Scott Barrow West

I was a Teamster flight attendant for 25 years and I was always so proud of the way they stepped up to the plate after a disaster. They also operated some pretty impressive food banks in Minnesota.

Joe Ligotti

In September 29 years local # 25 and damn proud to stand with my brothers and sisters.

John Rumball

A Union is only as Strong as the Membership?UNION YES

Carol Medina

Proud of my brother being trustee in his teamster union.

Mark James Hankins

union is strength

Nick Wanko

Work a Union Job for the good of America! Be union Buy Union made products! Live in America then buy American made!

Milford Nelson

"The more of us that stand together- volunteering and making our voices heard- the stronger our UNION will be." ~Pipeliners Union 798~

Don Klinestiver

We need Unions more now than when John L saved us back when.

Stephen Hernandez

Unions are the rights of workers to collectively negotiate better pay, safer working conditions, benefits, better hours, so we can raise a family and spend time with them. Now tell me: WHATS UN AMERICAN ABOUT THAT!?! Before Unions people were dying in mines, factories and had to work 16 hours or more a day with out over time pay. That's why companies want Unions gone so they can have sweat shops back!!!

And to a union critic:

Jim Folliett

I am a teamster, 20 long years, full bennies, great retirement and a good wage. My union dues are only $61 a month and I take home almost $4, 000 a month, so go put your head back up your ass!!!

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Saturday, May 25, 2013

Next week Wal-Mart workers will turn up the volume a notch in their campaign to be treated decently by the retail giant. Echoing the freedom riders of the Civil Rights movement, they will ride in caravans of buses to the company's June 7 annual meeting in Bentonville, Ark.

The buses will be leaving from all over the U.S., including Southern California, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. They'll pick up Wal-Mart associates along the way. They're hoping for support from union members and other allies at their stops.

Several days before the shareholder gathering, caravans will leave from several cities around the country, stopping along the way to pick up workers and supporters, and to meet with community activists. OUR Walmart’s plans for the next month also include confrontations between Walmart employees and members of the company’s board of directors.

They decided on the Ride for Respect during a five-day planning session at the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Ala.

Los Angeles Wal-Mart worker Tsehai Almaz told The Nation that she and her colleagues feel they're facing many of the same issues as the 1961 freedom riders:

I feel like we’re facing many of the same issues, even though it’s not necessarily about race—this time it’s about respect. And being able to feed our families, and having good working conditions...

It’s time for this generation basically to accept the baton and continue the movement. Because it didn’t end in the ’60’s. That just started the movement—it’s continuing with how Walmart is treating its associates.

Preparations for the Ride for Respect can be found on OUR Walmart's Facebook page.

Across the country we're getting ready for the Ride for Respect! We'll be talking to Associates across the country and bringing our message of change to Bentonville for the Annual Meeting. Thanks to OUR Walmart So Cal for sharing this image. Like if you support and go to this link to sign up!

I WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED by Walmart’s threats and retaliation against Associates who speak out for better pay, more hours and respect at work. I’m ready to put an end to Walmart’s unfair labor practices.

The Teamsters are supporting OUR Walmart through the Change to Win federation. Teamsters are encouraged to show support for the Ride for Respect.